The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for identifying biological particles. More particularly, the present invention relates to a small apparatus for identifying biological particles, wherein in a single apparatus having a simple structure, a cleaning solution is suctioned to separate the biological particles from a filter and a sample solution is discharged, the discharged sample solution is injected into a plurality of ticket modules, and the biological particles are identified by image analysis for the ticket modules, thereby enabling miniaturization of the apparatus.

Provided herein are techniques for label free cell sorting. The systems and methods provided herein may use machine learning based image classification techniques to identify cells of interest within a sample of cells. The cells of interest may then be separated from the sample using mechanical, pneumatic, piezoelectric, and/or electronic devices.

This disclosure describes single-use test cartridges, cell analyzer apparatus, and methods for automatically performing microscopic cell analysis tasks, such as counting and analyzing blood cells in biological samples. A small measured quantity of a biological sample, such as whole blood, is placed in a mixing bowl on the disposable test cartridge after being inserted into the cell analyzer. The analayzer also deposits a known amount of diluent/stain in the mixing bowl and mixes it with the blood. The analyzer takes a measured amount of the mixture and dispenses in a sample cup on the cartridge in fluid communication with an imaging chamber. The geometry of the imaging chamber is chosen to maintain the uniformity of the mixture, and to prevent cells from crowding or clumping as it is transferred into the imaging chamber by the analyzer. Images of all of the cellular components within the imaging chamber are counted and analyzed to obtain a complete blood count.

A fractionated photoacoustic flow cytometry (PAFC) system and methods for the in vivo detection of target objects in biofluidic systems (e.g., blood, lymph, urine, or cerebrospinal fluid) of a living organism is described. The fractionated system includes a fractionated laser system, a fractionated optical system, a fractionated acoustic system, and combinations thereof. The fractionated laser system includes at least one laser or laser array for pulsing a target object within the circulatory vessel with fractionated focused laser beams. The fractionated optical system separates one or several laser beams into multiple beams in a spatial configuration on the skin above the circulatory vessel of the living organism. The fractionated acoustic system includes multiple focused ultrasound transducers for receiving photoacoustic signals emitted by the target object in response to the fractionated laser beams. The target objects have intrinsic photoacoustic contrast or may be labeled with photoswitchable or spaser-based probes. Fractioned beams may be used also for diagnostics with other spectroscopic methods (e.g., fluorescence, Raman or scattering) and energy sources both coherent and conventional such as lamp and LED in the broad spectral range from 10 Å to 1 cm (e.g., X-ray, UV, visible, NIR or microwaves) in continuous wave and pulse modes.

A system for characterizing at least one particle from a fluid sample is disclosed. The system includes a filter disposed upstream of an outlet, and a luminaire configured to illuminate the at least one particle at an oblique angle. An imaging device is configured to capture and process images of the illuminated at least one particle as it rests on the filter for characterizing the at least one particle. A system for characterizing at least one particle using bright field illumination is also disclosed. A method for characterizing particulates in a fluid sample using at least one of oblique angle and bright field illumination is also disclosed.

A cell sorter includes a base for holding a cell culture plate containing a fluorescently labeled sample of cells, a fluorescence imager for viewing the cell culture plate, through bottom of the cell culture plate, to capture one or more fluorescence images of the fluorescently labeled sample of cells, and a cell extraction module for extracting a cell selected based on the one or more fluorescence images. The cell extraction module includes a needle for hydraulically removing the selected cell from the cell culture plate, and a motorized translation stage for translating the needle in a z-dimension to reach the selected cell from above. The cell sorter further includes a motorized translation stage for translating one of the needle and the cell culture plate in x- and y-dimensions, relative to the other one of the needle and the cell culture plate, to position the needle over selected first cell.

In certain embodiments a device is provided for electrorotation flow. In certain embodiments the device comprises a microfluidic channel comprising a plurality of electrodes disposed to provide dielectrophoretic (DEP) forces that are perpendicular to hydrodynamic flows along the channel; and a fluid within the channel providing the hydrodynamic flow along the channel; wherein the device is configured to apply focusing voltages to the electrodes that provide an electric field minimum in the channel and that focus cells, particles, and/or molecules or molecular complexes within the channel; and where the device is configured to apply rotation-inducing voltages to the electrodes that induce rotation of the cells, particles, molecules and/or molecular complexes as they flow through the channel.

The invention relates to a method for detecting a particle in a container filled with liquid, the method having the following steps: dispensing a liquid sample into the container, scanning a partial volume area of the container in order to detect a particle located in the liquid sample, characterized in that an upper limit and a lower limit of the partial volume area is determined in a calibration operation upstream of the dispensing process.

A counting method includes aggregating particles in a sample by action of first-direction dielectrophoretic force, dispersing the aggregated particles by action of second-direction dielectrophoretic force, which is different from the first-direction dielectrophoretic force, capturing a dispersion image including the dispersed particles, and determining the number of particles on the basis of the dispersion image.

A system comprises a particle sensor unit in communication with a processor. The sensor unit comprises a source that transmits light into an interrogation region; receive optics that collect scattered light from particles in the interrogation region; and an optical detector that receives the collected light from the receive optics. The detector comprises a sample area including one or more sampling pixels, and an edge region including one or more edge pixels. The processor analyzes intensity data from the detector by a method comprising: combining all intensity data from the sampling pixels; adding the combined intensity data to a data set; determining whether to accept overlap intensity data that corresponds to an overlap between the sampling pixels and the edge pixels; adding the overlap intensity data to the data set if accepted; discarding the overlap intensity data if not accepted; and discarding all non-overlapping intensity data from the edge pixels.